At least 18 dead after high-speed train derails in Taiwan

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Train carriages are scattered at the site of a train derailment in Lian in northern Taiwan on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018. The Puyuma express train was carrying more than 300 passengers toward Taitung, a city on Taiwan’s southeast coast, when it went off the tracks on Sunday afternoon.

DONGSHAN TOWNSHIP, Taiwan (AP) — One of Taiwan’s fastest passenger trains derailed Sunday on a curve along a popular weekend route, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 170 others, authorities said.

The Puyuma express was carrying more than 360 passengers from a suburb of Taipei in the north to Taitung, a city on Taiwan’s southeast coast, when it went off the tracks shortly before 5 p.m., the government said in a statement.

Most of the deaths were in the first car, and it was unclear how many people may still be trapped in the train, according to a government spokesman, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity.

Some passengers were crushed to death, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Chen Chung-chi said.

“Their train car turned over. They were crushed, so they died right away,” Chen said.

Earlier, the government put the death toll as high as 22, but the National Fire Agency, citing the Cabinet spokesman’s office, later reduced that figure, blaming a miscalculation.

Photos from the scene just south of the city of Luodong showed the train’s cars in a zig-zag formation near the tracks. Five cars were on their sides.

Local television reports said passengers tried to escape through windows and that bystanders gathered to help them before rescuers arrived.

Hours after the accident, one of the eight cars was seen tipped over at about a 75-degree angle, with the entire right side destroyed.

Fearing people may be trapped beneath the car, firefighters with lights on their hard hats peered underneath as a crane prepared to upend it. The firefighters were joined by soldiers and Buddhist charity workers who gathered on both sides of the tracks.

On a live feed provided by Taiwan’s United Daily News, rescuers could be seen carrying what appeared to be a body wrapped in white plastic away from the site.

The wreck happened at a railway station called Hsin Ma, but the train was not scheduled to make a stop there.

The Puyuma was launched in 2013 to handle the rugged topography of Taiwan’s east coast. It is distinct from the high-speed rail that runs on the west coast. The Puyuma trains travel up to 93 miles per hour, faster than any other in Taiwan except for the high-speed rail.

The train that derailed had its most recent inspection and major maintenance work in 2017, Taiwan Railways Administration Director Lu Chie-shen said at a televised news conference.